Erica is surprised by the knock at her door. She stomps over to the door, not in the mood to deal with her little sister.
"What?" She demands, swinging open the door.
"Um, hi." Laura says, standing there sheepishly.
She looks beautiful, even though she looks like she hasn't gotten a full night of sleep in days.
"I didn't expect you." Erica says, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Yeah, um," Laura hands her a plastic bag of like four cookies.
"What are these?"
"Der and I made cookies for the boys/girls in our lives."
"And I get four?" Erica asks with a raised eyebrow.
"Look, I got hungry on the way over here."
Erica laughs and moves aside so Laura can come in, shutting the door. "I came because I was a bitch."
"You were."
"But I was having some pretty serious family problems and it was stressful."
"It wasn't really my place to act like that. I mean, you're right I'm not your girlfriend, I'm not your anything." Erica says softly.
"It's not that-" Laura presses her fingers to her temples and rubs. "It's nothing personal, you're a great girl and I know you are, but I don't do relationships. I can't."
"Can't or won't?"
"Does it matter? It's my decision."
"It's effecting me too."
"I'm not asking for it to effect you. No one's stopping you from leaving."
"Leaving what? You just said we weren't in a relationship."
Laura sighs,
"You're right. We're not, if you want to fuck, fine. If not, that's fine, there's plenty of girls lined up who would love to be in your position."
"That's not fair. Don't you care how I feel?"
"Of course I care, that's why I'm saying we can end it. I mean we've only hooked up, what? Three times. Thats nothing."
"Sex and feelings aren't separate for me Laura. I can't just turn it off like you."
"I don't know what to say."
"I think you should just go."
Lydia answers on the first ring, like she always does.
"What's up?"
"I need to get drunk."
"It is three in the afternoon."
"It's five o'clock somewhere."
"You want to go clubbing or is this a pity drunkfest?"
Laura's silent.
"Alright, meet me at my place in like an hour."
"Love you."
Lydia sighs,
"I love you too honey."
The Sheriff's car is in the driveway but Derek can't turn back now. With a plate of fresh baked cookies in one hand, he knocks on the door.
The Sheriff answers the door, and crosses his arms over his chest,
"Derek Hale."
"Um, yes sir."
"Are you aware you broke my son's heart?"
"I- I didn't mean to!"
"He's been sulking in his room for days."
"Sir, I really didn't-"
"Listen you little punk-" The Sheriff starts, poking Derek in the chest.
"Dad! Stop. You need to get to work anyway."
"But son-"
"Dad, for real. I can handle it."
The Sheriff looks between them one last time and then heads out to his cruiser shaking his head and muttering.
Stiles' hair is a mess and he's wearing a t-shirt with a hole right above his right nipple and a pair of plaid boxers.
"Get in here." Stiles gestures, letting Derek in. "Now what the hell are you doing here?"
"I, came with apology cookies." He hands Stiles the plate.
Stiles raises an eyebrow,
"You made these?"
"Yes."
"Hmm."
"Stiles, I can explain."
"Explain why I felt like a total jackass for asking you to fuck me? I know that people are weird about virginity but, I didn't like, expect you to tell me to lose it to someone else before I slept with you."
"What? I didn't say that! I would never say that! That's not the problem, I promise."
"Then what's the problem because I, look I've done other stuff if that's the problem. I'm not gonna like, I don't think we're going to get married or anything if we do this, I just thought you'd want to but if not, that's cool."
Derek sighs,
"Listen, it's not anything you did. It's me, and something I did."
"What?" He asks staring up at Derek.
"I, I did something-"
"You said that. Now what? You'd better not be making up another lie."
"What? No. It's just embarrassing."
"Embarrassing as your boyfriend flat out rejecting you?" Stiles spits, cheeks pink.
"I have gonorrhea."
"What the fuck?" Stiles splutters.
"Yeah."
"Derek what the fuck?"
"I know, I know."
"Derek!"
"I know." Derek mutters, voice cracking. When he looks up, Stiles is just staring at him, eyes wide. He can't take it and he buries his head in his hands, tears welling up behind his eyes.
"Hey." Stiles mutters, wrapping an arm around Derek's shoulders, " I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you feel bad."
"No, you're right. You need to make me feel bad, because it just as easily could have been herpes or HIV, or something that medicine can't fix, but like, I trusted him-" Derek hiccups, and buries his face in his hands again.
"Ssh." Stiles rubs his back, "It's okay. We all make mistakes, it'll be okay. You're going to get better and you now know that you can't trust people with your body. It's gonna be okay Der."
"Are you mad at me?"
"No, no. I was mad you didn't tell me what was bothering you, because that's what people in relationships do Derek. They talk to each other. But I'm not mad you have an STD. And I'm actually really happy that you were really honest with me."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"So we're okay?"
"Yes sweetie."
Derek rubs his eyes, and turns to wrap his arms around Stiles, burying his face in his neck,
"I'm glad you're not mad at me."
Stiles rubs Derek's back and pecks his temple,
"Not at all. You know what you need?"
"What?"
"A parks and rec and binge day?"
"Really?"
"Absolutely."
"I think I'm down."
"Aright, well lucky for you, I stocked up on Ben and Jerry's cause I was mad at you." Stiles says opening the freezer. There are four pints of Ben and Jerry's Half Baked ice cream.
"Good god Stiles, have enough?"
"No actually I don't." He sticks his tongue out at Derek, "There's three empty cartons in the trash ya dirtball."
Derek rolls his eyes as Stiles grabs two pints, two water bottles, two spoons and a family size bag of potato chips, heading upstairs.
"What are the chips for?"
"You crush them up and sprinkle them on the ice cream."
Derek wrinkles his nose,
"What?"
"I'm being serious. The sweet and salty. Yum."
"You're a weirdo."
"You love it." Stiles teases, leaning across Derek to grab his laptop. He squishes close to Derek, so Derek is sandwiched between Stiles and the wall, and he opens his ice cream and digs in as Stiles starts parks and rec.
"Listen to me!" Laura slurs.
"What?"
"Where the fuck does she get off?"
"Who?"
"Erica!"
"Oh, okay, okay." Lydia says, taking another sip from the wine bottle.
"She just! She doesn't get to act like she knows what it's like! She's been a lesbian for what? Five minutes- fuck her!"
"It's probably been more than five minutes."
"Shut the fuck up!"
Lydia hands her the bottle of wine,
"Fuck that moscato! Where's the vodka?"
Lydia sighs, pointing to the cupboard.
"Anyway! She's not even out to her family and she's going to judge me? I don't do relationships. I'm never going to do relationships. No one's ever going to accept that I'm not getting married to a man and no one's ever going to accept I'm not having any bad ass little kids?"
"But your parents-"
"That's my parents. Not my grandparents or my aunt, you know she's a homophobic asshole. It's just hard. Like everyone here knows but I have family who doesn't know and-"
"What are you really scared of Laura?" Lydia asks, watching her uncap the vodka bottle.
Laura takes a long gulp, shuddering as the vodka burns.
"What if I really like her? What if we're great and amazing and it's fun and I'm so happy? What if we tell her parents and they flip the fuck out and say she can't see me? What if I love her and then have to give that up?"
"Is that worse than never trying?"
Laura takes another gulp of vodka, blinking back tears,
"Yes. Because at least I know how this ends. Before it even starts."